DOCKETED 11-AFC-04 TN # 68660 Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility NOV 26 2012 Draft Ethnographic Report Informing the Preliminary Staff Assessment
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California Energy Commission DOCKETED 11-AFC-04 TN # 68660 Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility NOV 26 2012 Draft Ethnographic Report Informing the Preliminary Staff Assessment This Report is subject to the confidentiality restrictions and informed consent provisions provided at: Section 304 of the National Historic Preservation Act [16 U.S.C. 470w‐3(a‐c), Section 6254.10 of the California Public Records Act, 46 CFR 101 Use of Human Subjects, and Section 1798.24 of California Civil Code. November 2012 BY: Thomas Gates, Ph.D. Ethnographer California Energy Commission PROOF OF SERVICE (REVISED 11/02/12) FILED WITH ORIGINAL IN SACRAMENTO ON 11/26/12 AC Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility – California Energy Commission Draft Ethnographic Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides documentation concerning Native American ethnographic resources that could be impacted by the Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility (Rio Mesa SEGF) energy generation project, proposed to be developed on 3,960 acres of land in the southeastern corner of Riverside County, California. This report provides: 1) a brief description of the project; 2) an explanation of ethnography and the types of resources that ethnographic methods can explain; 3) a review of the ethnographic methods employed for this study; 4) background information on the tribal governments and other Native Americans that participated in the study; and 5) the ethnographic resources identified as a result of this study. This report’s analysis has highlighted some of the Chemehuevi Tribe, the Colorado River Indian Tribes, the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, the Agua Caliente Tribe, the Quechan Indian Tribe, and the Cocopah Tribe life‐ways, and how those life‐ways are intertwined with the surrounding landscape, into eight attributes: water, plants, agriculture, animals, trails, landforms, mortuary treatments and ceremonies and sacred trails. This report remains in draft form, and will not be finalized until after publication of the Preliminary Staff Assessment (PSA), and after staff has conducted all analysis areas, including trails and tribal ethnographic interviews. This analysis leads the staff to conclude that there are ethnographic resources that, to varying proximity, are in the vicinity of the project: 1. Salt Song Trail Landscape 2. Keruk/Xam Kwatcan Trail/Earth Figures Landscape 3. Palo Verde Ethnographic Landscape This report documents each of these resources’ periods of significance, analysis of integrity, and how the various criteria are met to meet the eligibility requirements to the California Register of Historical Resources. 2 November 2012 Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility – California Energy Commission Draft Ethnographic Report Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 2 1.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Description of Project ......................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 What is Ethnography? ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.3.1 Ethnographic Resources ............................................................................................................. 10 1.3.2 What are Traditional Cultural Properties? ................................................................................. 10 1.3.3 What are Sacred Sites? .............................................................................................................. 12 1.3.4 Cultural Landscapes and Ethnographic Landscapes .................................................................. 12 2.1 HISTORY OF TRIBES FROM THE PATAYAN (ca. A.D. 1000) TO THE PRESENT ........................................ 15 2.2 Patayan ............................................................................................................................................. 15 2.3 Present Tribal Governments ............................................................................................................. 16 Table 1 Summary of Tribal Participation for this Study .......................................................................... 17 2.4 Southern Paiute ................................................................................................................................ 17 2.4.1 Chemehuevi Indian Tribe ........................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Mohave ............................................................................................................................................. 18 2.5.1 Colorado River Indian Tribes ...................................................................................................... 19 2.5.2 Fort Mojave Indian Tribe............................................................................................................ 19 2.6 Cahuilla .............................................................................................................................................. 19 2.6.1 Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians ..................................................................................... 19 2.7 Quechan ............................................................................................................................................ 20 2.7.1 Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Nation (Quechan Tribe) ................................................................. 20 2.8 Cocopah ............................................................................................................................................ 20 2.8.1 Cocopah Indian Tribe ................................................................................................................. 20 3 November 2012 Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility – California Energy Commission Draft Ethnographic Report 3.1 METHODS .............................................................................................................................................. 22 3.2 General Description of Ethnographic Methods and “REAP” ............................................................ 22 3.3 RMSEGS Ethnographic Study ‐ General Meetings ............................................................................ 23 3.4 Research Design ................................................................................................................................ 25 3.5 Interviews .......................................................................................................................................... 26 3.6 Archival Research .............................................................................................................................. 27 3.7 Ethnographic Method Constraints .................................................................................................... 27 4.0 ETHNOGRAPHIC ATTRIBUTE ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 29 4.1 Totemic Clan Names ......................................................................................................................... 29 4.2 Water ................................................................................................................................................ 31 Table 2 (from Medenhall 1909) .............................................................................................................. 33 Table 3 Water Vocabulary ....................................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Plants ................................................................................................................................................. 35 Table 5 Potential Culturally Significant Cactus Species .......................................................................... 37 4.4 Agriculture ......................................................................................................................................... 38 Table 6 Seasonal Subsistence Activities and Migrations ........................................................................ 41 Table 7 Cultivated Crops in the Lower Colorado River Valley................................................................. 44 Table 8 Emergence and History of New World Agriculture Related to the Yuman Cultures of the Lower Colorado River ......................................................................................................................................... 47 4.5 Animals .............................................................................................................................................. 49 4.6 Trails .................................................................................................................................................. 51 Table 10 Items Traded Between Groups in the Lower Colorado River Valley and Beyond [This table will be populated once trail research is complete] ....................................................................................... 52 4.6.2 Archaeological Trail Features ..................................................................................................... 53 TRAIL